


rise with it drown in it

by Jaybird_Wings



Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, F/F, Minor Peter Nureyev/Juno Steel, Peter only shows up at the end i mean, Pirate Buddy and siren Juno, Pirates and Sirens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-11
Updated: 2019-04-11
Packaged: 2020-01-11 08:24:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18426747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jaybird_Wings/pseuds/Jaybird_Wings
Summary: Buddy and has never met a siren before. He says his name is Juno.





	rise with it drown in it

 

               Buddy’s been at sea for a long time. From her younger years of high crime and piracy with Vespa, now alone on the quiet waves.

 

               She has never met a siren.

 

               When she was young, all the stories of the deep enthralled her. Tales of monsters so big they were unimaginable, or of things that could control them. Vespa wasn’t as interested in such fantasies, but she let Buddy talk for hours about the stories she heard as a kid.

 

               She knows the sea well, and one thing that means is she knows it is vast and not able to be known completely. Just when she thinks she’s seen it all in her older age, she’s proven wrong.

 

               Juno doesn’t look like a siren, though.

 

               She can tell he’s strange. When he walks, it’s like he’s never had legs and he stares at the sea like he can understand the currents and tides better than the words coming out of her mouth. The way his skin almost catches sunlight like scales instead of something humans.

 

               But she thinks he’s a siren. She has a story she heard from her far away home on land.

 

                              A siren can will legs instead of a tail, but sirens never want to leave the ocean. Something that makes a siren run is something to fear indeed.

 

               And Juno does seem he was running from something. He’s got shaking hands and a deep regret in his eyes.

 

               He never says he’s a siren, but during one particularly bad storm, he’s thrown overboard by the rough waves and he doesn’t come back up. He took a hit to the head, and afterward when storm calms down, she’s sure he’s drowned.

 

               But he rises from the depths. When she drags him back up, his head is filled with the hum of distant and loud creatures from the deep, and the feeling of the ocean swallowing him whole. Sirens don’t like leaving the ocean, they don’t do it for a reason.

 

               Juno is the first siren Buddy has met for a reason.

 

               But he likes to be cryptic and she doesn’t think she needs to push him for any answers. He doesn’t feel like trouble. He just feels like a mess.

 

               She doesn’t know what could hurt a siren, nonetheless what could tear a siren’s eye out.  But he helps her ship make its way through the unending blue, so she stays content.

              

               The ship is attacked by a lone offender, a hooded figure Juno refuses to kill and as the figure jumps into the ocean, Buddy sees green hair.

 

               She left the land for good for a reason. She hated the crowds where she swore she saw her love, only for it to be grief and folly. She still can’t stop the name on her tongue from leaving her lips.

 

               But the figure doesn’t swim to the surface, and they must have drowned.

 

               “Look.” Juno points to the distance, where the figure has resurfaced.

 

               “No human’s lungs could do that. The person I knew couldn’t do that, years ago.”

 

               “No, a human couldn’t.” Juno softly agrees.

 

               It was Vespa. She’s sure of it. But Vespa was human, _hell_ she didn’t even believe in the tales of mermaids Buddy would tell her.  

 

                “What happened to her to make it so she could breathe underwater?” Buddy asks.

 

               Juno knows, she can see it in his eye. He knows what’s going on in his siren brain of his.

 

               “The deal makers of Theia, the titan of sight and sky. I- I made a deal, to get legs and all. Traded my eye and- my eye, yeah. They’ll bend every rule and find every loophole, though. I don’t know what she traded, but I’m guessing she made a deal to make sure she couldn’t- so she didn’t drown. They’re the only powers I know that can make a human breathe water.”

 

               Buddy remembers the last time she thought she’d ever see Vespa, falling into the water. Without a body, it’s hard to accept death, as they could still be walking.

 

               “Why’d you leave the ocean?”

 

               “Really know how to drop the heavy questions on a lady don’t you?”

 

               “Serious, Juno. I let you on my ship, little questions asked. You speak of deal makers and your missing eye. What made you leave the ocean that you still seem to love?”

 

               He gets all melancholy, staring out into the night ocean that is pitch black.

 

               “I wanted legs so I could be with… somebody. Somebody I loved. Love. I traded my eye and my powers, but in the end, I was… a coward.”

 

               He really goes all kicked puppy, woe is my tale slouch and his eyes keep looking down to the depth below.

 

               “Take it from someone who hasn’t had a second chance- if you can be happy, don’t sabotage yourself. Vespa is there and maybe lost because of the deal makers, but you’re telling me you have your lover and you left them… why? Because you were nervous? Not everyone has easy second chances as you. Don’t waste it.”

 

               “He’ll never want to see me after what I did anyways.”

 

               It’s a depressing night for them both.

 

 

               Even with how much Buddy tries to avoid land in her older age, she has to stop by harbors and re-stock. Juno doesn’t understand anything about markets and money, so she can’t even send him. alone in a full crowd of people, he’d probably trip over his own feet in the chaos. But the trudge through, his hand holding onto her arm.

 

               The market place is disrupted when the hooded figure- Vespa- shows up with a knife in hand.

 

               “They sent me to kill you, but I know you, don’t I?”

 

               Memories or clear thought. She traded something that made her unsure of who Buddy even was.

 

               “It’s really you, Vespa.” She breathes in wonder and relief. She never thought she’d get to see those tired eyes again, to feel her heart mend back together at the sight of her. It was surreal to be face to face, even in the moment of utter confusion from Vespa.

 

               Vespa looks distraught and jumps off the harbor into the water again. Juno doesn’t even hesitate to jump in after this time.

 

               He comes back up to the surface far after anyone can survive without air, but the two are both thrashing and breathing just fine. He brings them both on the wooden harbor ground again.

 

               “This isn’t real,” Vespa repeats to herself like a mantra, holding her head and shaking.

 

               “Yes, it is.” She reaches out, but Vespa flinches away. Her hand drops.

 

               “They showed me you, but you died. I messed up, all I wanted was to see you again. They just- just promised I could. Forgetting a few things didn’t seem to matter then.”

 

               “It’s okay, it’s okay. I’m here and I’m not leaving you here by yourself.”

 

               Juno denies crying when the two kissed, but he’d be lying.

 

 

               Finding a tune to the cacophony around was rough, at first, but they work through the nice and the bad. Vespa wakes with nightmares, and Buddy’s hands won’t listen to stop shaking but they’re together. Juno visits from time to time, somehow. Siren lungs and all that making the bounds of distance through waves mean nothing.

 

               Juno doesn’t stay on her ship for long, through. He’s found something important to do, someone to fight against.

 

               Buddy can’t understand what Juno does about the ocean, the way that it has been imprinted behind Vespa’s eyes. What it means to be under those waves and to breathe it all in. She listens, but he knows it written down into his bones.

 

               Vespa and he gives the ocean much reverence and fear all in one fearful glance to each other.

 

               So, she appreciates his visits in the slightest sense.

 

               “Juno, not that having you as an awkward third wheel from time to time isn’t completely enjoyable and not at all a nuisance, but you’re being a mood killer. You’re acting like life has lost meaning because of one lover boy.”

 

               “I gave up the ocean, so yeah life doesn’t have meaning. I can jump back in but the waves don’t welcome me anymore, there’s a song that I used to be a part of- and now it’s like, I’m just a bystander. A foreigner in my own home. The ocean is a giant system where everything works together and I’m not there anymore. And Nu- and he, he made it feel worth it or whatever. But he… it’s over Buddy, stop bringing it up.”

 

               She’s not going to stop, because she’s tired of Juno being mopey all the time.

 

               She used to be the greatest pirate on top of the seas, though, so she can find one man. A man who’s fallen in love with a siren is one who has fallen in love with the ocean as well. A man whose name is a secret, and who’s been heartbroken recently. The ocean isn’t such a big place under her touch.

 

               She finds him. A thief, who says his name is Lamar Anatolia. Fake, of course. She asks him to help with a heist of a relic at sea, bound to be worth a ton but guarded by a fleet of royal boats.

 

               They meet at a harbor, Buddy’s ship is big and able to fair the harsh weather. A ship smaller than hers and green in complexion (with the inscription ‘Ruby 7’ on the side) pulls up right before midnight.

 

               Lamar gives a short wave and smiles.

 

               “Ready, Ms. Aurinko?”

 

               She grins, too, with Vespa standing shoulder to shoulder so the cold night air doesn’t feel so harsh.

 

               “We’re waiting for one more.”

 

               Juno rises from the waves, obsidian water breaking at the surface.

 

               Buddy used to tell Vespa insane adventure stories of merfolk under the waves fighting giant sting rays and fighting the titan of light himself, Hyperion, but she could have never guessed she’d live a tale like this one, with Vespa there to experience it with her.

 

               From Juno’s absolute shock to Lamar’s foxlike smirk, it’s going to be a tale to tell indeed.

 


End file.
